(Aleesha Amjad) Peshawar BRT hailed after receiving the prestigious Gold Standard from the Asian Development Bank but suffering heavy losses of PKR 4 billion every year it is feared that the dream ride is close to an end!
How did it all start? The skyscraper deal whipped everyone taking a look at Islamabad metro services, which required minimal costs compared to Peshawar’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system’s high running cost and breakdowns, and bankruptcy-like features. Do questions loom over the minds of the public on how can one department spend so much?
The financial troubles of the BRT are only worsened by incomplete infrastructure. Unfinished bus depots have cost the government Rs300m, and an audit for 2022-23 found that Trans Peshawar, which operates the BRT, had spent Rs13bn without obtaining necessary technical approvals. That lack of oversight and responsibility is the crux of the system’s financial problems.
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Further complicating the matter is that the Peshawar BRT runs on an unsustainable fare. The Islamabad Metro runs for PKR 30 per trip, and Peshawar BRT for PKR 20 if you are traveling less than 5 km. Despite ferrying over three lakh commuters daily, this in itself explains why that is not enough to even cover their operational cost. As much as it works in attracting ridership, it also highlights how unsustainable financially this transit project’s model was from the beginning.
At another level of oddity altogether is a recent saga where with one signature, buses worth Rs 40 million each were allotted to a private entity at a price of Rs 288 per bus. This move epitomized how inconspicuous our government was about funds already being spent and reiterated concerns about what the long-term plan has been all along with managing these transit projects’ assets.
Despite winning international accolades the BRT’s performance at home is less illustrious. And unless issues of mismanagement and financial difficulties are sorted out sooner— rather than later—the Peshawar BRT could well end up being a high-cost symbol of all our future dashed dreams and wastes.
